Madonna has abandoned plans to build a boarding school for 400 girls in Malawi
despite spending $3.8 million (£2.4 million) on the project.

The singer and her co-founders, the charity Raising Malawi, cancelled plans to complete the £9.4 million school amid allegations of mismanagement.

The charity has been supported by celebrities such actors Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow among the attendees at a glitzy Manhattan fund-raising event two years ago, as well as Kabbalah Centre International, the Jewish mystical organisation that Madonna belongs to.

"A thoughtful decision has been made to discontinue plans for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, as it was originally conceived," Michael Berg, co-founder of Raising Malawi, told the New York Times.

Madonna said she was intent on continuing the charity, which is now being run by a caretaker board that includes the singer and her manager.

"There's a real education crisis in Malawi. Sixty-seven per cent of girls don't go to secondary school, and this is simply unacceptable," she said.

She has lent £6.9 million of her money to the organisation, which has raised £11 million so far.

Troubles with the school first surfaced in October, when Philippe van den Bossche, the boyfriend of Madonna's former personal trainer, departed as executive director.

Madonna commissioned a report by the Global Philanthropy Group, which, according to its chairman Trevor Neilson, found a "startling lack of accountability" on the part of the management in the Malawi and the US.

It was alleged that there was no land title for the intended site of the school in Lilongwe and that building work had not begun, despite Madonna's attendance at a "groundbreaking" ceremony.

Mr Neilson told the New York Times that he had advised the performer that starting a school from scratch was not the best use of her funds. He recommended providing money to existing educational schemes run by established non-government organisations with expertise in the field.

Madonna' connection with Malawi began when she adopted a child in 2006, and then another in 2009.

International adoptions by Americans has decreased sharply due to the economic crisis and increased regulation imposed after high-profile celebrity cases, agency officials said.

In 2004, almost 23,000 children were adopted from around the world by American families, but by 2010 that figure had more than halved to 11,058, according to US State Department figures.

"We have stopped organising adoptions for overseas clients because it was just too hard to find good families," said Leah Kigutha, director of Maji Mzuri Children's Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

A surge in enquiries up to 2010 – attributed to publicity surrounding Madonna's case – had stalled as increased legislation governing adoptions was discussed by the US authorities, Ms Kigutha said.